Grammar, Direct and Indirect Speech
Read the following extracts from the story 'David Begins a New Life': 1. One day Miss Betsey asked me, 'What do you think of Dick?' I replied, "He's very nice.' 2. Miss Betsey then informed me that Mr Dick was a distant relative of hers and he was declared insane by his own brother. Miss Betsey had come to his rescue and got him home. I was told that Mr Dick had been living with her for the past ten years. The sentences What do you think of Dick? and He's very nice are the exact spoken words of Miss Betsey and David respectively. These are in direct speech. The extract marked as 2, reporting what Miss Betsey told David about Dick, is in indirect speech or reported speech. Now let's see how the two sentences in direct speech would read if they were reported in indirect speech. One day Miss Betsey asked me what I thought of Dick. I told her that he was very nice. The two sentences are different an...